Northwest Next Door.

Curlers Sweep Into Highland Park

February 21, 1999|By Jodie Jacobs. Special to the Tribune.

The look was Scottish, the sounds were a mix of regional accents, but the language was esoteric sports jargon when 31 teams from all over the U.S. descended on Highland Park last weekend for the United States Women's Curling Association's National Bonspiel (tournament).

Bagpipe ceremonies and plaid outfits gave a Scottish air to Highland Park's Exmoor Country Club, which hosted the bonspiel. Participants were competing in a sport that many experts trace back several centuries in Scotland.

The sport, which boils down to strategies of getting a very large hockey puck-style "stone" with a handle down a sheet of ice into a bull's-eye area, has Olympic exhibition status. It is not broadly known in this country.

"I'd never seen it. I read about it in the paper and wanted to see what it was," said Highland Park resident Mardy Minx, who stopped by early in the tournament. But before coming, she called her friend, Marion McConnell, a former Lake Forest curler, to go along as interpreter.

"I think it's intriguing. It's like a sophisticated shuffle board only with more strategy and more activity," Minx said.

McConnell liked explaining the sport, and she appreciated the skill level. "It's good curling. Not one team is walking away with it. It's very competitive," she said.

The Exmoor team, which Minx had been rooting for and which was the reigning champion, successfully defended its title.

Minx and McConnell were among several people who stopped by because they were curious, according to Highland Park curler Beth Lucas and Exmoor's team "skip" (captain), Ann Brown of Highwood.

"We had people from Vernon Hills, Barrington and all over who heard about it and wanted to see it," Lucas said.

Brown pointed out that those who knew nothing about the sport were taken in hand.

"As soon as someone or a group walked in who looked like strangers, a hostess or someone would take care of them and stay with them to explain what was happening. It's unbelievable how many people just came in," Brown said.

"The teams that came had a very good time. It was wonderful the way they took advantage of what we have in Chicago," she said. The draws? According to several curlers, it was shopping, the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Hancock building and Michael Jordan's restaurant.